This year has been a year of 2 halves. The first half was quite good. The second half wasn't a disaster but I definitely have gone backwards.
After doing the Marcothon in December 2016 it really did set me up amazingly and for the majoirty of January I continued that. Things were looking good for my half marathon in March as I ramped my long runs up to 9 miles. But for whatever reason took my foot off the gas. February and March were back to parkruns including my 100th. I was still running well at this point just over shorter distances. In May I started another half marathon plan which was going really well and in June I peaked. Scoring my best 10k time since 2010 of 55 minutes. Along with a 26.06 parkrun at Victoria, which was only 30 seconds slower than my fastest time last year.
So it was all going so well then illness struck again and again. Every time I thought I'd got rid of it, it would come back again. It wasn't a serious illness but enough to impact my running and had to take several weeks off work. I did joke in my Strava in the 1st January when I was tail runner at Pollok that I was setting my seasons best for the year. Well I very nearly got a worse time than that at Pollok. Also I have come 2nd last in two other parkruns. In the first half of the year 26-27 minutes was a good time for me and 30 minutes was taking it easy. In the second half of the year 30 minutes was a good time for me and no parkrun really felt easy!
I still enjoyed getting out to parkrun regardless and a big change for me this year has been volunteering where I have been volunteering a lot more down at Roukenglen junior parkrun. Any excuse to see my nieces more! Also it's great to be more involved in parkrun. I am probably more obsessed with it now more than ever.
So what are my parkrun run stats for this year? Here you go:
4 between 26-27 minutes
4 between 27-28 minutes
2 between 28-29 minutes
5 between 29-30 minutes
16 between 30-40 minutes
2 40 + minutes
33 parkruns total - Now at 129 altogether
New parkruns visited: Harlow, Arrow Valley, Ruchill and Edinburgh
Most visited parkruns this year:
12 Pollok
4 Linwood
3 Tollcross
3 Strathclyde
2 Victoria
2 Springburn
2 Ruchill
2 Drumchapel
I don't think illness was the only reason for getting slower though. My running buddy Andy left my work in June and since then I haven't been getting out very much at lunchtimes. I have still been running when I have been working from home but the motivation for getting up early to get the lunchtime runs has defo declined.
The positive to take from this year is that I'm still running. Even with the rubbish times I didn't let it affect me and looked forward to the next week. That's 3 and half years now I have been back running which I reckon is now my longest period of regularish running in my life. The highlight of the year did come in the second half of the year and that was the weekend through in Edinburgh doing the Cramond parkrun and Tough 10 hill run with the bro. Going into 2018 I have set new goals which I will go into in another post. These goals have been set with how this year has gone in mind.
Saturday 30 December 2017
Sunday 5 November 2017
An eventful weekend in Edinburgh...
And by eventful, I am mean a weekend full of events :-) Many may call them races but I think the organisers of both prefer to call them events, just being the nature of them. But if you put a bunch of people in the same place, say the word "go", time people and give them a finish line. I suppose you could call them races too.
Edinburgh parkrun
Saturday's event was Edinburgh parkrun situated in Crammond in the northwest of the city, running along beside the Fourth river. I met up with some old workmates in Edinburgh on Friday night, so since I was there I thought I'd take advantage and book a hotel for the night which gave me the chance of doing a parkrun I have never done before. My hotel was in Edinburgh park which is only 4 miles away from Crammond. But since I didn't have the car, it meant I had to go into Edinburgh by tram and back out by bus. So about an hour an a half to get there. Would have been quicker from Glasgow by car lol. I looked at staying in the centre but hotels were 60 quid more expensive.
Anyway I got to Crammond just after 9 and walked to the start. I found myself a wee seat and just chilled out listening to music. Then about quarter past they gave the shout for the first timer/visitor briefing. I always like to go to these even though I have done so many parkruns now. And this one I was glad I went to. It was Davie Black doing it who is a prominent figure in the parkrun community, not only in Scotland but on the parkrun facebook group too. He told us all about the history of parkrun in Scotland, Edinburgh and his own parkrun achievements. I think he has done the most parkruns out of anyone in Scotland sitting at 401. Obviously he went over the essentials and the serious stuff but he was also very funny and the 20 odd people who were there were made to feel very welcome.
By the time he had finished it was actually time to start! So I made my way to the back of the pack. After a technical glitch with the pa system meant the run director had to shout; we were on our way. For this run I wanted to take it as easy as possible, knowing I had a tough race the next day. Being at the back was perfect as there was 577 runners today, so it meant I wasn't going off too quickly. At the same time the path is so wide that you can find your own space pretty quick (at least where I was anyway!). After the first couple of K, the course goes into a 1 km loop and then the last 2k goes back the way you came. Very similar to Strathclyde parkrun. At the 2km mark it was busy, but spread out enough. I found myself catching people. Then I would aim for the next and the next. My orignal plan of just taking it easy went out of the window and ended up finishing bang on 30 minutes. Which seems to be my standard time at the moment. I know I can go faster than that though if I started off at a better pace. Probably can get down to 28 minutes soon, 27 at a push.
Afterwards I headed back to my hotel for a shower and got the train home.
Cancer Research Tough 10
Having not done a race since June and backing out of the Aberdeen half having not done the training. I needed something else to focus on. So back in September my brother signed up for this. I was a bit skeptical as I had done zero hill training at that point and I know how tough the hills in the Pentlands are. And the fact that it has "Tough" in the name means they are not going to make it easy!
Fast forward and even yesterday after parkrun I was thinking whether I should do this or not. Although I have been running, the max I have been up to in the last wee while is 4 miles and I have been nowhere near the amount of elevation in this 10k, which sat just over 1200 feet in total. But then I thought why not. I'll just walk the uphills and run the flats and downs.
So my brother, mum and my 2 nieces headed over to Bonaly, in the foot of the Pentlands. We got to the start with about 15 minutes to spare along with probably another 200-300 odd folk. As you would expect the first km was pure uphill. While many around me attempted to run, I just got into a fast walking pace which wasn't much slower than people trying to run up it. But after about a 1 km of that I was beginning to think if I am actually going to make it. It was tough going already and I had just been walking! After about a k, it starts to level off, and although the paths were very uneven. It was runnable. And I got myself into a run walk rhythm. Then after 3k you got a great view of the loch pictured below:
Edinburgh parkrun
Saturday's event was Edinburgh parkrun situated in Crammond in the northwest of the city, running along beside the Fourth river. I met up with some old workmates in Edinburgh on Friday night, so since I was there I thought I'd take advantage and book a hotel for the night which gave me the chance of doing a parkrun I have never done before. My hotel was in Edinburgh park which is only 4 miles away from Crammond. But since I didn't have the car, it meant I had to go into Edinburgh by tram and back out by bus. So about an hour an a half to get there. Would have been quicker from Glasgow by car lol. I looked at staying in the centre but hotels were 60 quid more expensive.
Anyway I got to Crammond just after 9 and walked to the start. I found myself a wee seat and just chilled out listening to music. Then about quarter past they gave the shout for the first timer/visitor briefing. I always like to go to these even though I have done so many parkruns now. And this one I was glad I went to. It was Davie Black doing it who is a prominent figure in the parkrun community, not only in Scotland but on the parkrun facebook group too. He told us all about the history of parkrun in Scotland, Edinburgh and his own parkrun achievements. I think he has done the most parkruns out of anyone in Scotland sitting at 401. Obviously he went over the essentials and the serious stuff but he was also very funny and the 20 odd people who were there were made to feel very welcome.
By the time he had finished it was actually time to start! So I made my way to the back of the pack. After a technical glitch with the pa system meant the run director had to shout; we were on our way. For this run I wanted to take it as easy as possible, knowing I had a tough race the next day. Being at the back was perfect as there was 577 runners today, so it meant I wasn't going off too quickly. At the same time the path is so wide that you can find your own space pretty quick (at least where I was anyway!). After the first couple of K, the course goes into a 1 km loop and then the last 2k goes back the way you came. Very similar to Strathclyde parkrun. At the 2km mark it was busy, but spread out enough. I found myself catching people. Then I would aim for the next and the next. My orignal plan of just taking it easy went out of the window and ended up finishing bang on 30 minutes. Which seems to be my standard time at the moment. I know I can go faster than that though if I started off at a better pace. Probably can get down to 28 minutes soon, 27 at a push.
Afterwards I headed back to my hotel for a shower and got the train home.
Cancer Research Tough 10
Having not done a race since June and backing out of the Aberdeen half having not done the training. I needed something else to focus on. So back in September my brother signed up for this. I was a bit skeptical as I had done zero hill training at that point and I know how tough the hills in the Pentlands are. And the fact that it has "Tough" in the name means they are not going to make it easy!
Fast forward and even yesterday after parkrun I was thinking whether I should do this or not. Although I have been running, the max I have been up to in the last wee while is 4 miles and I have been nowhere near the amount of elevation in this 10k, which sat just over 1200 feet in total. But then I thought why not. I'll just walk the uphills and run the flats and downs.
So my brother, mum and my 2 nieces headed over to Bonaly, in the foot of the Pentlands. We got to the start with about 15 minutes to spare along with probably another 200-300 odd folk. As you would expect the first km was pure uphill. While many around me attempted to run, I just got into a fast walking pace which wasn't much slower than people trying to run up it. But after about a 1 km of that I was beginning to think if I am actually going to make it. It was tough going already and I had just been walking! After about a k, it starts to level off, and although the paths were very uneven. It was runnable. And I got myself into a run walk rhythm. Then after 3k you got a great view of the loch pictured below:
It was a nice run down to the loch and then there was a short section of tarmac round the loch where you hit the 4k mark. Then you turn left up the hill known as the "Calf burner". That was a toughy but the marshal at the top was so enthusiastic it really made you want to get going again. I must say though there were marshals all over the place and they were fantastic. I should really mention my brother here to. At first I thought he was going to run off and run his own "race". But it ended up he was quite happy running with me and then sprinting off, stopping, and so on. He is a lot fitter than me at the moment so would have been interesting to see what time he would have done if he gave it his full effort.
Anyway the climbing continued up to the 5k mark and it just got muddier and muddier. As much as I like getting muddy it does make the going tougher and meant I had to even more. But after a couple of km of climbing. It must have been about 7km where I got this view over Edinburgh:
After this picture was taken it was pretty much all downhill. The first of which was pretty steep which I took my time going down. Then it got into the nice gradual downhills which I like and I ran all the way to the finish from there. At the finish my nieces and my mum were there to cheer us over the finish line which was nice.
In the end we got there in an hour and 24 minutes. Not bad, especially when you consider I have done zero training on hills like that, I have just done road hills. To put this in perspective the winner was 46 minutes. I would do this one again and I wouldn't even say "Oh I need to do more hill training next time". Yes it would help me get a better time. But I enjoyed it the way it was. If I did it next time in say 1hour 8 minutes I don't think I would be more happy than I was today as it was more about just getting out in the hills and hanging out with the family. ...........I would like to get my parkrun times down a bit though!
Tuesday 26 September 2017
More setbacks in September, but on the up
Since the last post I have had to spend more time on the sidelines due to illness. Somehow I have still managed to keep my streak going of getting out at least once a week this year but calling some of them runs are questionable. But at least I am getting out there.
The first run back from illness was at Tollcross parkrun in the east end of Glasgow. My reason for doing it was because I haven't done it since March so deserved another outing. Plus I knew it would be a struggle so I wouldn't be setting any speed records if I did a flat course. But what happened in this run was something I really did not expect. I came 2nd last!! I know the tail walker goes down as last in which case I would be 3rd last, but still, the only person I was in front of was a 70 year old! First run back from illness or not, this maybe was the wake up call I needed. Not just in terms of my time but my general health. For the record my time was just over 36 minutes which is my worst 5k time ever.
The next weekend I went to Springburn parkrun. After Tollcross the previous week my expectations were low and I just set out at a very easy pace. Just before the end of the first lap where the slight incline starts I felt the need to walk, so I did up to the small car park. But after that I was able to run fine the whole of the 2nd lap. Then in the last half lap I even managed to pick up the pace a bit and push on for a sprint finish! Where did that come from I don't know but it was reassuring to know I hadn't completely lost my fitness. I started to think that because I was bed bound so much I hardly did any activity at all when I was ill meaning my body needed to get use to being active again. Anyway this parkrun I did in just over 30 minutes! A 6 minute improvement on Tollcross.
Hmmmmmm, the weekend after Springburn saw me to return to Pollok for the first time since June. I felt alright at the start but wanted to take it easy still just to gradually try and build things up rather than go for it and have a guaranteed blow up. In the end it could be seen as my biggest blow up ever at a parkrun and that was taking it easy! I didn't even complete the first km or some might say the easy bit, without walking. And walking featured heavily on this "run". The reason for this is that the more I went on, the more ill I felt. I probably should have stopped after 1 lap but I'm too stubborn sometimes. I finished in 42 minutes. A PW for 5k by a long way.
It only took me a few days to recover from this though and I was back at it for the final parkrun day in September. This time I was heading south for a family wedding with my parents. They very kindly let me do a parkrun on the Saturday and I chose one which was on the way as the wedding was down in Cornwall. So I picked Arrow Valley just south of Birmingham in Redditch. To be honest I don't really have any criteria for picking a parkrun - like flat/hilly, laps/out and back etc. It was going to be somewhere I haven't been and its a parkrun so they were the only 2 boxes that needed to be ticked. I knew it was a busy one by the results. Usually they get about 400. It starts in a big grassy area and then its 2 laps of the lake, although the path does veer away from the lake in sections. The paths are quite narrow and I started quite far back, so pace was very much dictated for the first mile or so. But then it spread out and I could pick people off for the rest of it. I ended up finishing in 30 minutes completing a very up, down month of running.
In terms of looking forward and future goals I know I said I might just stick to doing parkruns but I do think I need bigger goals to get me going further and faster during training. So maybe a 10k in November could be on the cards. I also have set some strava segment goals to keep my hill work interesting.
The first run back from illness was at Tollcross parkrun in the east end of Glasgow. My reason for doing it was because I haven't done it since March so deserved another outing. Plus I knew it would be a struggle so I wouldn't be setting any speed records if I did a flat course. But what happened in this run was something I really did not expect. I came 2nd last!! I know the tail walker goes down as last in which case I would be 3rd last, but still, the only person I was in front of was a 70 year old! First run back from illness or not, this maybe was the wake up call I needed. Not just in terms of my time but my general health. For the record my time was just over 36 minutes which is my worst 5k time ever.
The next weekend I went to Springburn parkrun. After Tollcross the previous week my expectations were low and I just set out at a very easy pace. Just before the end of the first lap where the slight incline starts I felt the need to walk, so I did up to the small car park. But after that I was able to run fine the whole of the 2nd lap. Then in the last half lap I even managed to pick up the pace a bit and push on for a sprint finish! Where did that come from I don't know but it was reassuring to know I hadn't completely lost my fitness. I started to think that because I was bed bound so much I hardly did any activity at all when I was ill meaning my body needed to get use to being active again. Anyway this parkrun I did in just over 30 minutes! A 6 minute improvement on Tollcross.
Hmmmmmm, the weekend after Springburn saw me to return to Pollok for the first time since June. I felt alright at the start but wanted to take it easy still just to gradually try and build things up rather than go for it and have a guaranteed blow up. In the end it could be seen as my biggest blow up ever at a parkrun and that was taking it easy! I didn't even complete the first km or some might say the easy bit, without walking. And walking featured heavily on this "run". The reason for this is that the more I went on, the more ill I felt. I probably should have stopped after 1 lap but I'm too stubborn sometimes. I finished in 42 minutes. A PW for 5k by a long way.
It only took me a few days to recover from this though and I was back at it for the final parkrun day in September. This time I was heading south for a family wedding with my parents. They very kindly let me do a parkrun on the Saturday and I chose one which was on the way as the wedding was down in Cornwall. So I picked Arrow Valley just south of Birmingham in Redditch. To be honest I don't really have any criteria for picking a parkrun - like flat/hilly, laps/out and back etc. It was going to be somewhere I haven't been and its a parkrun so they were the only 2 boxes that needed to be ticked. I knew it was a busy one by the results. Usually they get about 400. It starts in a big grassy area and then its 2 laps of the lake, although the path does veer away from the lake in sections. The paths are quite narrow and I started quite far back, so pace was very much dictated for the first mile or so. But then it spread out and I could pick people off for the rest of it. I ended up finishing in 30 minutes completing a very up, down month of running.
In terms of looking forward and future goals I know I said I might just stick to doing parkruns but I do think I need bigger goals to get me going further and faster during training. So maybe a 10k in November could be on the cards. I also have set some strava segment goals to keep my hill work interesting.
Sunday 6 August 2017
Back to the day blog
Well at time of writing my first vlog still hasn't reached the 500k views I was anticipating so thought it was best to give it a back seat and go back to blogging.
I did say on my last vlog that July needed to be a big month to get me in the right shape for Aberdeen half later this month. I also said that I was feeling ill. That got worse and I had take take some time off work. After that I have found it difficult to get back into running again. Not helped with being in a bit of a stressful work situation. So basically my big month of July never happened and I think I was lucky to get over 20 miles for the entire month. I did Ruchill parkrun yesterday basically run/walking the whole way in 33.30 minutes and yes I was trying. I do wonder how long it is going to take me to get back to where I was just the month before when I was in the 26 minute region for parkrun.
So what now? ......
I have cancelled my hotel in Aberdeen. No way I am in any state to do a 10k never mind a half marathon at the moment. Even if I was taking my time I would struggle. It is frustrating to have to cancel another race as it is does seem to be a regular occurrence over the last few years. While I'm still running I think I'll always be in the mindset of wanting to do a big race again and yes while I was on my high of training during June I did enter a marathon for next year. Which you never know I might be in a position to do it. But I keep saying to people that I might just stick to parkruns for the rest the year. Now notice the word "just". I say it as if there is something wrong with that and that I should be going longer. But there is really nothing wrong with it! And it is a mindset I need to change for now. So for the rest of the year it will be parkrun fest and that is that. :-)
I did say on my last vlog that July needed to be a big month to get me in the right shape for Aberdeen half later this month. I also said that I was feeling ill. That got worse and I had take take some time off work. After that I have found it difficult to get back into running again. Not helped with being in a bit of a stressful work situation. So basically my big month of July never happened and I think I was lucky to get over 20 miles for the entire month. I did Ruchill parkrun yesterday basically run/walking the whole way in 33.30 minutes and yes I was trying. I do wonder how long it is going to take me to get back to where I was just the month before when I was in the 26 minute region for parkrun.
So what now? ......
I have cancelled my hotel in Aberdeen. No way I am in any state to do a 10k never mind a half marathon at the moment. Even if I was taking my time I would struggle. It is frustrating to have to cancel another race as it is does seem to be a regular occurrence over the last few years. While I'm still running I think I'll always be in the mindset of wanting to do a big race again and yes while I was on my high of training during June I did enter a marathon for next year. Which you never know I might be in a position to do it. But I keep saying to people that I might just stick to parkruns for the rest the year. Now notice the word "just". I say it as if there is something wrong with that and that I should be going longer. But there is really nothing wrong with it! And it is a mindset I need to change for now. So for the rest of the year it will be parkrun fest and that is that. :-)
Sunday 9 July 2017
2nd Vlog on my week in running and a feature on coming last in races
Here is my latest Vlog
For those who would prefer to read a blog here is a brief report on my week.
On Monday and Tuesday I was feeling better but decided to take a few more rest days. On Wednesday I did a 2 and half mile run round the campus at work which was good. Thursday I struggled a bit and just managed 2 miles. Friday rest day. Then Saturday I had planned to run to parkrun, do the parkrun then run back but went back to bed instead. So went on my own run later. I sent out at a really easy pace but struggled to keep going after 2 miles and stopped it there. I thought I would try again today but not feeling that great again.
Saturday 1 July 2017
First vlog
Back in 2010 I did a few race videos which you can find in the right hand side of the page. But today just on a wim, I decided to try doing a vlog instead of the usual blog. The first one is basically a short introduction to my running just to try and get to grips with doing vlogs. So if you followed this blog for a while (thanks!) but I'm afraid there is nothing new on there. But in future the vlogs will be new stuff. I haven't decided yet the balance I will give between the vlog and the blog I'l just see how it goes. I've never been good at public speaking or anything like that so I thought this might be a good way of improving that skill. That may take a while lol.
Anyway I hope you enjoy the first one.
Anyway I hope you enjoy the first one.
Sunday 18 June 2017
18/06/17 - Mens 10k Glasgow
The 2 weeks run up to the 10k haven't really gone according to plan and I have missed quite a few sessions. I haven't been ill. But in the harder sessions I really have been pushing it and I found it has been taken me longer to recover from them. Most notably the Monday before the race where I did a 10k over a very hilly route in 1 hour 11 minutes. I was going at a easy pace but due to the hills it really took it out of me and ended up run/walking after 3 miles. So it was going to be interesting to see how I would do today.
Although I have done plenty of parkruns this year I haven't actually done a race since last July. Last year my best 10k time was 59 minutes so I was hoping to beat that today. And I was confident that I would beat the 1 hour 4 minutes at the Mens 10k 2 years ago. This was also the first time my brother and I would run in the same race, although we have done parkruns together.
So on to the race. We arrived in plenty of time and did a warm up before making our way to our pen. We both put down an hour finish time so we were both in the same pen. We were actually in the last wave of people to go off. As it started I was determined not to dodge in and out of people and wasting my energy. But that was never a problem and I was able to get into the pace I wanted immediately which was 9 minute mile pace. I never checked my watch during the race but going by feel and what I had practiced in training I knew I was going at that pace or there abouts.
In the first couple of km my brother got further and further away from me till he was out of site. I was confident he would stay ahead of me today judging by some of his training where he did a 55 min 10k training run. About 3k I caught up with Stuart who I know from parkun. He was being a VI guide and doing a great job. Its amazing the detail he was going into, telling the runner about the surface and giving information of the degree of turns coming up and when exactly he'll be hitting them.
I was in a good zone at this point. I was putting in an effort but I felt I could sustain it. When I got to Buchanan Street I was expecting the 4k marker but it never came. I got to the water station which was half way but I never saw the 5k marker. It wasn't until going down the street back towards the Clyde where I saw the 6k marker which was a relief. When I turned left onto the road going up to the top end of Glasgow green, all of a sudden my brother came into view and I was reeling him in and passed him in between 7k and 8k. I gave him some encouragement and pushed on. 8k I was feeling it but I kept it going. I found that the km markers did seem to come quickly (at the times I saw them). Which was a good thing mentally.
Passing the 9km mark I knew there was lots of twists and turns as it weaves its way to George Square. I found this quite difficult. I'm not sure if it was the heat or my head or just physically I was done. But halfway through that last km I had to take a walk break. I don't know about anyone else but when I take a walk break it feels like you are walking for an eternity. I did pick up again and start running. And somehow I still did the last mile in 8.40 so I cant have been walking for long. And the last .2 of a mile at 9.10 pace (I'm not sure exactly what point I started walking).
There were great crowds at the finish. I think I finished at rush hour as literally as soon as I crossed the line the queue for the medals and goody bags started. It took a while to get through but everyone was patient and it didn't take away from this excellent event. I crossed the line in 55.39 so its the fastest 10k I have done in years and I think well and truly reflects where I'm at, at the moment. I really gave it everything and pretty much paced it the way I planned. Well done to my brother who finished in 57 minutes in his first race in many years.
Now onwards to Aberdeen at the end of August.
Monday 29 May 2017
May
Well this has been a fun month. It started full of promise and full of hope as I set out on a structured training plan for my half marathon in August. The first of the month, a bank holiday, 35 minutes easy running it said. This should be easy enough! I got about a mile into it and started to feel more and more unwell till I just stopped, turned around and walked back feeling very faint.
That was me for the week. House bound. No exercise. No work. No nothing. By the time Saturday came round I was perking up a bit so headed over to Ruchill parkrun which at the time was the newest addition to the Scottish parkrun family. So I decided I was just going to jog round given the week I had. Well I thought it would be a jog. Its a 3 lap course and somehow it feels like you are always going up apart from one wee bit where there is a short, sharp downhill. I jogged about a mile and a bit and ran/walked the rest.
For the rest of the month I really got into the plan and stuck with all the sessions bar one where I wasn't feeling up to it that day. But I am enjoying the mix of speed sessions, easy runs and slightly longer runs. Before this plan I have always just done loops of a certain distance. But this plan does so many minutes. So I have been doing out and backs trying to keep even pacing and doing smaller loops at the end if required to make up to a certain time. I think I may go back to loops though as I kind of know roughly how long each loop takes anyway.
One run on the schedule which I have changed is the 25 minute easy run on the Saturday. And you will be shocked as to the reason. To do an all out parkrun. The week after Ruchill I did Linwood and did just over 27 minutes and gave a really good effort. Then the next week I did Strathclyde. I wasn't unwell but I just didn't feel like going fast that day so set off conservatively. But I found as the run went on I was gradually getting faster and finished off just under 29 minutes. Then my last parkrun of the month was Victoria parkrun where I surprised myself a lot. My brother came along too who has been running well recently so I expected him to beat me. He shot off at the start and I settled into a nice steady pace. With Victoria being three laps and going round a loch I saw him build a substantial gap. But on the 3rd lap I realised I was closing and I took a point where he passed and counted 20 seconds gap. But I thought that was too much as there was less than a kilometre left. On the straight back towards the loch though I caught and passed him. I fully expected him to overtake me again on the home straight but he never caught me. I finished in a seasons best of 26.06 with my brother getting a 5k PB just 7 seconds behind me.
I have also started the steps challenge again last week where I am aiming to cover 10,000 steps every day for 100 days (till the end of August). I have decided not to do lots of blogs on this, this year though and focus on my half marathon training instead. I am aiming to beat my average last year which was 13,000 steps a day and will give wee updates just to say my progress compared to last year.
Step count as at 29th May after 5 days
2016: 61,620
2017: 75,121
That was me for the week. House bound. No exercise. No work. No nothing. By the time Saturday came round I was perking up a bit so headed over to Ruchill parkrun which at the time was the newest addition to the Scottish parkrun family. So I decided I was just going to jog round given the week I had. Well I thought it would be a jog. Its a 3 lap course and somehow it feels like you are always going up apart from one wee bit where there is a short, sharp downhill. I jogged about a mile and a bit and ran/walked the rest.
For the rest of the month I really got into the plan and stuck with all the sessions bar one where I wasn't feeling up to it that day. But I am enjoying the mix of speed sessions, easy runs and slightly longer runs. Before this plan I have always just done loops of a certain distance. But this plan does so many minutes. So I have been doing out and backs trying to keep even pacing and doing smaller loops at the end if required to make up to a certain time. I think I may go back to loops though as I kind of know roughly how long each loop takes anyway.
One run on the schedule which I have changed is the 25 minute easy run on the Saturday. And you will be shocked as to the reason. To do an all out parkrun. The week after Ruchill I did Linwood and did just over 27 minutes and gave a really good effort. Then the next week I did Strathclyde. I wasn't unwell but I just didn't feel like going fast that day so set off conservatively. But I found as the run went on I was gradually getting faster and finished off just under 29 minutes. Then my last parkrun of the month was Victoria parkrun where I surprised myself a lot. My brother came along too who has been running well recently so I expected him to beat me. He shot off at the start and I settled into a nice steady pace. With Victoria being three laps and going round a loch I saw him build a substantial gap. But on the 3rd lap I realised I was closing and I took a point where he passed and counted 20 seconds gap. But I thought that was too much as there was less than a kilometre left. On the straight back towards the loch though I caught and passed him. I fully expected him to overtake me again on the home straight but he never caught me. I finished in a seasons best of 26.06 with my brother getting a 5k PB just 7 seconds behind me.
I have also started the steps challenge again last week where I am aiming to cover 10,000 steps every day for 100 days (till the end of August). I have decided not to do lots of blogs on this, this year though and focus on my half marathon training instead. I am aiming to beat my average last year which was 13,000 steps a day and will give wee updates just to say my progress compared to last year.
Step count as at 29th May after 5 days
2016: 61,620
2017: 75,121
Friday 19 May 2017
Flashback - London marathon 2004
As mentioned in my last post, the thing which propelled me into long distance running was watching the London marathon on TV in 2003. I decided then that I could not watch it on TV in 2004. I had to be there. I had to do it. If I remember right back in those days it wasn't a case of enter the ballot during a 5 day period in May. I think the ballot was open for a lot longer than that. Anyway fast forward and I got rejected from the ballot. But I did get a very nice London marathon fleece which I still have today.
Of course there is another way of getting into the London marathon. The golden bond place. Where you pledge to raise a certain amount for a charity and they give you a place. This was the first time I had attempted to raise a lot for charity and at that time I didn't really have a real connection to any charity. So I chose the one with the lowest amount you needed to raise. So I ended up choosing Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland where you had to raise £1,000 and a worthy cause. It was tough raising money as back then I was a student. So all my work friends, school friends and uni friends were also students. So it was a challenging task raising sponsorship. But I made it to £1,000 with the help of a few generous donors.
So now the place was sorted it was onto training for the marathon. Did I learn anything from my first race? Well I knew I could cope with a half marathon, I just need to up my long runs. But at that time I still had no clue what to do in between. I didn't know about tempo runs/fartleks or interval sessions. Of course sometimes I ran faster but I just trained naturally. During the week then I just did runs between 3 - 4.5 miles. I built up my long runs accumulating in a 20 mile long run 2 weeks before the marathon. So I really thought I was ready going into the marathon. Interestingly my long runs followed the same pattern. I would start off easy and then get quicker and quicker as they went on. Obviously I did this by feel as no garmins in those days for mile splits.
On to race day. I was totally buzzing! I had no sleep due to the excitement of it all. But I felt ready. I was determined to start slowly which is exactly what I did. Maybe even too slowly. After 6 miles I was feeling great so decided to start upping it like I did on training runs. I remember the first half of the course being pretty quiet. When I started upping it though I found my self weeving all over the place and going up on pavements. Probably working far more than I should of. Then getting to Tower bridge around mile 12 and there was this wall of noise. It was amazing. I still to this day have never experienced anything in a race like it. I got to halfway in 2 hours 7 minutes. I had not been tracking my time but I knew it was because my first 10k was extremely slow because I did pick it up quite a bit in the 2nd 10k. Just after halfway my parents and brother were there supporting which was great.
However at mile 14. Yes 14. The wheels came off. I didn't know what was wrong at the time but all of a sudden the top of my legs were in agony. Turns out I got cramp in both my quads. I must have walked for about 4 miles. I never thought about quitting once though and was determined to keep moving forward. Then I got speaking to an older women who started walking with me. She asked me if this had put me off running which I said no. Then she gave me drugs which I assume were painkillers. My old school friends ribbed me for years after about this (taking drugs not speaking to an older women!). But although I still found it difficult, I did manage to run bits after that and the rest of it was just a run walk to the finish.
How did I feel when I finished? To be honest I was absolutely gutted. I crossed the line in 4.48. I had been so fixated on a sub 4 hour marathon in the build up, I just did not have any back up goals. My family were absolutely over the moon as none of my family had completed a marathon before. I didn't really appreciate back then what I had achieved. But I certainly do now. I think the fact that you are so knackered after it plays with your emotions too and also everything you have put into it training wise.
Would I do London again? It never really crossed my mind to do it again until this year I got inspired. My name is in the ballot for 2018. I don't think I would do a golden bond place again. Its all about how many people you know really unless you are prepared to do other ways of fundraising. I have done marathons/cycles since for charity but they were not golden bond so no pressure on amount raised.
Of course there is another way of getting into the London marathon. The golden bond place. Where you pledge to raise a certain amount for a charity and they give you a place. This was the first time I had attempted to raise a lot for charity and at that time I didn't really have a real connection to any charity. So I chose the one with the lowest amount you needed to raise. So I ended up choosing Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland where you had to raise £1,000 and a worthy cause. It was tough raising money as back then I was a student. So all my work friends, school friends and uni friends were also students. So it was a challenging task raising sponsorship. But I made it to £1,000 with the help of a few generous donors.
So now the place was sorted it was onto training for the marathon. Did I learn anything from my first race? Well I knew I could cope with a half marathon, I just need to up my long runs. But at that time I still had no clue what to do in between. I didn't know about tempo runs/fartleks or interval sessions. Of course sometimes I ran faster but I just trained naturally. During the week then I just did runs between 3 - 4.5 miles. I built up my long runs accumulating in a 20 mile long run 2 weeks before the marathon. So I really thought I was ready going into the marathon. Interestingly my long runs followed the same pattern. I would start off easy and then get quicker and quicker as they went on. Obviously I did this by feel as no garmins in those days for mile splits.
On to race day. I was totally buzzing! I had no sleep due to the excitement of it all. But I felt ready. I was determined to start slowly which is exactly what I did. Maybe even too slowly. After 6 miles I was feeling great so decided to start upping it like I did on training runs. I remember the first half of the course being pretty quiet. When I started upping it though I found my self weeving all over the place and going up on pavements. Probably working far more than I should of. Then getting to Tower bridge around mile 12 and there was this wall of noise. It was amazing. I still to this day have never experienced anything in a race like it. I got to halfway in 2 hours 7 minutes. I had not been tracking my time but I knew it was because my first 10k was extremely slow because I did pick it up quite a bit in the 2nd 10k. Just after halfway my parents and brother were there supporting which was great.
However at mile 14. Yes 14. The wheels came off. I didn't know what was wrong at the time but all of a sudden the top of my legs were in agony. Turns out I got cramp in both my quads. I must have walked for about 4 miles. I never thought about quitting once though and was determined to keep moving forward. Then I got speaking to an older women who started walking with me. She asked me if this had put me off running which I said no. Then she gave me drugs which I assume were painkillers. My old school friends ribbed me for years after about this (taking drugs not speaking to an older women!). But although I still found it difficult, I did manage to run bits after that and the rest of it was just a run walk to the finish.
How did I feel when I finished? To be honest I was absolutely gutted. I crossed the line in 4.48. I had been so fixated on a sub 4 hour marathon in the build up, I just did not have any back up goals. My family were absolutely over the moon as none of my family had completed a marathon before. I didn't really appreciate back then what I had achieved. But I certainly do now. I think the fact that you are so knackered after it plays with your emotions too and also everything you have put into it training wise.
Would I do London again? It never really crossed my mind to do it again until this year I got inspired. My name is in the ballot for 2018. I don't think I would do a golden bond place again. Its all about how many people you know really unless you are prepared to do other ways of fundraising. I have done marathons/cycles since for charity but they were not golden bond so no pressure on amount raised.
Friday 12 May 2017
Flashback - Great Scottish Run 2003
Just for a laugh and to get something written down to complete my blog, I am going to do a series of training build up/race reports from the pre blog era of my running. I think its a maximum of 6 races but may combine a few depending on my memory! Starting with my first ever race; the Great Scottish Run which took place in Glasgow in August 2003.
Firstly a bit of an introduction of how this came about. I was in my first year at uni in 2002 and my mate Alan and I were cutting it fine to get our bus home for the day. So we had to dash across Glasgow. I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got to the bus stop and Alan took the rip out of me (in a funny way) all the way home. Now I must add here that Alan was one of the best 400 meter runners in the country at this point so I probably should have put things into perspective. But it did make me think that I need to do more about my fitness. Then I started to go on runs quite regularly and mixed it in with gym sessions and five a side once a week. Flash forward to April 2003 I watched the London marathon on TV. I said to myself then that I couldn't watch it next year. I had to be there. That will come in the next post though.
My immediate aim was the Great Scottish Run that year. People might think its a bit of a jump to go from having done no races to doing a half marathon. And yeah you are probably right! But in those days the only person who I knew that ran was Alan and he did 400 metre races. So in short I didn't really have a clue what I was doing and just learning as I went along. There wasn't really a plan at all with training apart from making sure I did 1 long run a week. During the summer I worked in Greaves sports in the stock room. This was a job I loved doing as it was very active especially on a Saturday when it was mega busy. But one thing I noticed was the amount of running shoes I was sending down. I cottoned on to this and bought my first pair of running shoes which made a huge difference.
Anyway onto the race. I didn't really know how to approach the race, I had no plan, no time in mind, apart from take it easy as it is your first one! Unlike nowadays the race started and finished in Glasgow green back then and didn't go over the Kingston bridge. I was really excited by it and the first 6 miles I set out at an easy pace. Then as I approached Pollok Park I realised that I was feeling really good. I had done the first half in 1 hour and 2 minutes. Then I just upped the pace and it felt totally fine. I was overtaking like mad and loving it. I finished in 1 hour 54 minutes so a massive negative split. In those days as well as a medal and t-shirt, you also got a certificate too which I still have.
So that is how it all began, little did I know then, how much time I would spend in Pollok park years later.
Firstly a bit of an introduction of how this came about. I was in my first year at uni in 2002 and my mate Alan and I were cutting it fine to get our bus home for the day. So we had to dash across Glasgow. I was absolutely exhausted by the time we got to the bus stop and Alan took the rip out of me (in a funny way) all the way home. Now I must add here that Alan was one of the best 400 meter runners in the country at this point so I probably should have put things into perspective. But it did make me think that I need to do more about my fitness. Then I started to go on runs quite regularly and mixed it in with gym sessions and five a side once a week. Flash forward to April 2003 I watched the London marathon on TV. I said to myself then that I couldn't watch it next year. I had to be there. That will come in the next post though.
My immediate aim was the Great Scottish Run that year. People might think its a bit of a jump to go from having done no races to doing a half marathon. And yeah you are probably right! But in those days the only person who I knew that ran was Alan and he did 400 metre races. So in short I didn't really have a clue what I was doing and just learning as I went along. There wasn't really a plan at all with training apart from making sure I did 1 long run a week. During the summer I worked in Greaves sports in the stock room. This was a job I loved doing as it was very active especially on a Saturday when it was mega busy. But one thing I noticed was the amount of running shoes I was sending down. I cottoned on to this and bought my first pair of running shoes which made a huge difference.
Anyway onto the race. I didn't really know how to approach the race, I had no plan, no time in mind, apart from take it easy as it is your first one! Unlike nowadays the race started and finished in Glasgow green back then and didn't go over the Kingston bridge. I was really excited by it and the first 6 miles I set out at an easy pace. Then as I approached Pollok Park I realised that I was feeling really good. I had done the first half in 1 hour and 2 minutes. Then I just upped the pace and it felt totally fine. I was overtaking like mad and loving it. I finished in 1 hour 54 minutes so a massive negative split. In those days as well as a medal and t-shirt, you also got a certificate too which I still have.
So that is how it all began, little did I know then, how much time I would spend in Pollok park years later.
Sunday 7 May 2017
Change of plan
In the last 6 months I feel like I've changed my mind a lot about my running and since my last post I have again. In fact it was about a week after my last post I changed my mind. I was aiming to do the Mamores VK in September. While it is plenty of time to train, my lack of fitness at the moment especially on the hills is there to see in my parkruns. I have done Tollcross, Drumchapel and the new Ruchill parkrun which are all pretty hilly in the last few months and struggled in all of them. In each one I have got half way round and then had to walk/run for the remainder. In Ruchill, which I did yesterday, I had been ill in my bed all week and actually tried to take it as easy as possible and still had to walk. At the moment doing hilly parkruns or hilly 10ks are tough enough never mind doing actual hill races.
The funny thing is that in the last year I have still not gone a week where I have not been running. And I think this past week is the first time I have been ill in the last year which is quite impressive. But it does beg the question of what is going wrong, especially on the hilly courses. I did do Harlow and Springburn in April which I did times which is more of the kind I would expect of around 27 minutes. That's still a minute off what I was doing last year. But I think it comes down to a bad diet and not being active enough when I'm not running. Also in terms of actual runs they are a bit of a state - no actual structure. Also a big thing I think is that even though in the last 3 months I have been averaging 2-4 runs a week, I have only gone over 10 miles in one week, once. This definitely needs to change.
So what is the plan now? Well first things first. The 10,000 steps a day for 100 days challenge starts on the 24th May. This really changed things for me last year and hopefully will bring along the same kind of results this year. The difference this year is I have entered a race at the end of the August when the challenge finishes and that is the Great Aberdeen half. No pressure on time just want to finish. In order to bring structure I have got a training plan which doesn't focus on distance, but on time on feet. This is something I haven't done before as I have always done certain distances, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I'll see how the rest of May goes then if I can run for 45 minutes without stopping, I ll enter the Mens 10k in June.
The funny thing is that in the last year I have still not gone a week where I have not been running. And I think this past week is the first time I have been ill in the last year which is quite impressive. But it does beg the question of what is going wrong, especially on the hilly courses. I did do Harlow and Springburn in April which I did times which is more of the kind I would expect of around 27 minutes. That's still a minute off what I was doing last year. But I think it comes down to a bad diet and not being active enough when I'm not running. Also in terms of actual runs they are a bit of a state - no actual structure. Also a big thing I think is that even though in the last 3 months I have been averaging 2-4 runs a week, I have only gone over 10 miles in one week, once. This definitely needs to change.
So what is the plan now? Well first things first. The 10,000 steps a day for 100 days challenge starts on the 24th May. This really changed things for me last year and hopefully will bring along the same kind of results this year. The difference this year is I have entered a race at the end of the August when the challenge finishes and that is the Great Aberdeen half. No pressure on time just want to finish. In order to bring structure I have got a training plan which doesn't focus on distance, but on time on feet. This is something I haven't done before as I have always done certain distances, so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I'll see how the rest of May goes then if I can run for 45 minutes without stopping, I ll enter the Mens 10k in June.
Friday 7 April 2017
The first quarter and a bit
January was actually a pretty solid month. I didn't do as much as marcothon month but still managed 100k which is pretty good for me at the moment. More importantly I built up my long runs over the month and got them up to 10 miles while still keeping the parkruns going by just going at an easier pace.
In February long runs went out of the window for no real reason. I would just wake up and fancied running faster. So ended up more often than not just running a mile fast on a Sunday. Then I just went back to going for it at parkruns again.
March was Alloa month and at this point I was thinking that I would have lost my fitness of those long runs I did in January so just kind of went off the idea of doing Alloa. In hindsight I realise I should have really tried to go out on those long runs just to see if in fact I had lost the long run fitness I had gained in January. But definitely a lesson learned there. At least try!
So Alloa was out the window and I was back to running parkruns. My best being at Victoria parkrun getting a 26.43. Which actually equaled my course best there going the opposite direction to last time I did it.
Couple of weeks ago I missed parkrun and ended up doing a 3 mile route that I haven't done for years. It starts off going up a hill and it is hill I have always struggled with but especially today. I had to walk about half of it and this was at the start of the run! Needless to say the rest of the run was run/walk. But it did get me thinking that I want and need to get better at hills again. In the past it was always one of my strengths and I enjoyed doing hills both on roads and races.
So I am looking at doing some hilly 10ks in June/July. Then beyond that uphill races. With uphill races I am quite a way from doing them justice as I don't even go hillwalking at the moment. But if I have a good summer I have my name in the hat to do the Mamores VK in Kinlochleven in September. So about 5 months to get myself in shape. I have studied the route already and its a 3 mile route. The first mile looks half runnable, the second looks like all power hiking, then the third mile half running again (if thats possible after all that climbing!). So hiking is going to be just as important in training as running.
For starter though as I say it is to get better at road hills and gradually build it up. I'll be starting to be more selective towards the hillier parkruns like Pollok, Tollcross and Drumchapel (usually I just do any parkrun!). Also I have scoped out some hills in the area where I can do reps and I have set target times on them to have something to aim for.
In February long runs went out of the window for no real reason. I would just wake up and fancied running faster. So ended up more often than not just running a mile fast on a Sunday. Then I just went back to going for it at parkruns again.
March was Alloa month and at this point I was thinking that I would have lost my fitness of those long runs I did in January so just kind of went off the idea of doing Alloa. In hindsight I realise I should have really tried to go out on those long runs just to see if in fact I had lost the long run fitness I had gained in January. But definitely a lesson learned there. At least try!
So Alloa was out the window and I was back to running parkruns. My best being at Victoria parkrun getting a 26.43. Which actually equaled my course best there going the opposite direction to last time I did it.
Couple of weeks ago I missed parkrun and ended up doing a 3 mile route that I haven't done for years. It starts off going up a hill and it is hill I have always struggled with but especially today. I had to walk about half of it and this was at the start of the run! Needless to say the rest of the run was run/walk. But it did get me thinking that I want and need to get better at hills again. In the past it was always one of my strengths and I enjoyed doing hills both on roads and races.
So I am looking at doing some hilly 10ks in June/July. Then beyond that uphill races. With uphill races I am quite a way from doing them justice as I don't even go hillwalking at the moment. But if I have a good summer I have my name in the hat to do the Mamores VK in Kinlochleven in September. So about 5 months to get myself in shape. I have studied the route already and its a 3 mile route. The first mile looks half runnable, the second looks like all power hiking, then the third mile half running again (if thats possible after all that climbing!). So hiking is going to be just as important in training as running.
For starter though as I say it is to get better at road hills and gradually build it up. I'll be starting to be more selective towards the hillier parkruns like Pollok, Tollcross and Drumchapel (usually I just do any parkrun!). Also I have scoped out some hills in the area where I can do reps and I have set target times on them to have something to aim for.
Saturday 18 February 2017
My Journey to parkrun #100
Today I took part in my 100th parkrun, it has been a long journey to get here - 8 years in fact! But well worth it. What a ride!
Let's start from the beginning...
I still remember my first parkrun like it was yesterday. Although I had heard of parkrun pretty much when it started in Glasgow in late 2008. I didn't actually participate in one till June 2009 in Glasgow (now Pollok) parkrun in its 30th event. The reason for this was because I thought it was just a meet up in a park where you go running with a group of people at a certain time. I had been running for years since then and apart from doing the odd long run with my mate Alex, I never considered running in a group. It was very much a solo activity for me. That was until my brother and his wife did one in June 2009 and encouraged me to try it out. I was blown away by it. The organisation, the way its set up, the stats! oh I love stats! Yes it is essentially a place where you can meet and hang out with running buddies but it is so much more than that. It's environment where you can improve, learn, give back and may I even say race (don't shout that one too loudly though ;-) ).
I was so impressed by what I experienced and the very next week I wanted to volunteer. In those days I was very much a long distance runner aiming for marathons and halfs. And in fact apart from a 5k I did in school, this was really my first official 5k. It was from volunteering that a few folk encouraged me to join a club and later in October 2009 I joined Giffnock North. From 2009 to 2011, I would end up volunteering a lot as I liked how it was just such an easy environment to meet people. I still ran Pollok parkrun every now and then and my times toppled down from 25 minutes in my first parkrun, peaking in August 2010 a year later in just under 21 minutes.
In the middle of 2011 I started going off running as I failed to get prepared enough for my goal races. My training went downhill from there and eventually I left Giffnock North and the parkrun community. I did try to get back into running on various occasions but I had put on weight and I lost my fitness fast. In fact I could hardly run a slow mile without several walk stops. I wasn't depressed because of it or anything like that. I just accepted it and became lazy. It wasn't till 3 years later in August 2014 when my parkrun journey would start again. I decided that I needed a change and wanted a kind of easy way back in. So since Strathclyde parkrun is a totally flat course, I decided to make that my course to get myself back on the road to fitness. It worked and I got into the routine of running parkrun every week. Eventually I went back to Pollok and then started doing the tourist thing and visiting other parkruns across the west of Scotland. It became almost an addiction in a good way. Between 2009 and 2011 I did 16 parkruns. From August 2014 to July 2015 I had done 34 meaning I had earned my 50 t-shirt. I almost see it as parkrun uniform, wearing it pretty much every parkrun I do. 2016 I did do less parkruns than 2015 as I tried to increase my distance a bit. But I still did my fair bit of touristing and now Pollok was back as my main parkrun. This is shown through in my stats as my last 10 runs have been at Pollok.
I won't do a table ranking parkruns I have done from best to worse as I don't think that would be fair on the ones that would appear down the bottom of the list. This is because people do a lot of work in all the events for nothing at all which I appreciate greatly and I haven't found a parkrun yet that I wouldn't do again. But I will pick out the 3 events which I have enjoyed the most. Top of the pile has to be Pollok as that is where it all began. Then Eglinton as the route is just phenomenal. Then Falkirk for "That hill".
Today was great. My whole family came down to support and I ran round with my brother.
Thanks to everyone who has volunteered at a parkrun and the directors who make it happen.
250 is the next landmark so will probably not be writing another one of these posts for at least 5 years :-)
Let's start from the beginning...
I still remember my first parkrun like it was yesterday. Although I had heard of parkrun pretty much when it started in Glasgow in late 2008. I didn't actually participate in one till June 2009 in Glasgow (now Pollok) parkrun in its 30th event. The reason for this was because I thought it was just a meet up in a park where you go running with a group of people at a certain time. I had been running for years since then and apart from doing the odd long run with my mate Alex, I never considered running in a group. It was very much a solo activity for me. That was until my brother and his wife did one in June 2009 and encouraged me to try it out. I was blown away by it. The organisation, the way its set up, the stats! oh I love stats! Yes it is essentially a place where you can meet and hang out with running buddies but it is so much more than that. It's environment where you can improve, learn, give back and may I even say race (don't shout that one too loudly though ;-) ).
I was so impressed by what I experienced and the very next week I wanted to volunteer. In those days I was very much a long distance runner aiming for marathons and halfs. And in fact apart from a 5k I did in school, this was really my first official 5k. It was from volunteering that a few folk encouraged me to join a club and later in October 2009 I joined Giffnock North. From 2009 to 2011, I would end up volunteering a lot as I liked how it was just such an easy environment to meet people. I still ran Pollok parkrun every now and then and my times toppled down from 25 minutes in my first parkrun, peaking in August 2010 a year later in just under 21 minutes.
In the middle of 2011 I started going off running as I failed to get prepared enough for my goal races. My training went downhill from there and eventually I left Giffnock North and the parkrun community. I did try to get back into running on various occasions but I had put on weight and I lost my fitness fast. In fact I could hardly run a slow mile without several walk stops. I wasn't depressed because of it or anything like that. I just accepted it and became lazy. It wasn't till 3 years later in August 2014 when my parkrun journey would start again. I decided that I needed a change and wanted a kind of easy way back in. So since Strathclyde parkrun is a totally flat course, I decided to make that my course to get myself back on the road to fitness. It worked and I got into the routine of running parkrun every week. Eventually I went back to Pollok and then started doing the tourist thing and visiting other parkruns across the west of Scotland. It became almost an addiction in a good way. Between 2009 and 2011 I did 16 parkruns. From August 2014 to July 2015 I had done 34 meaning I had earned my 50 t-shirt. I almost see it as parkrun uniform, wearing it pretty much every parkrun I do. 2016 I did do less parkruns than 2015 as I tried to increase my distance a bit. But I still did my fair bit of touristing and now Pollok was back as my main parkrun. This is shown through in my stats as my last 10 runs have been at Pollok.
I won't do a table ranking parkruns I have done from best to worse as I don't think that would be fair on the ones that would appear down the bottom of the list. This is because people do a lot of work in all the events for nothing at all which I appreciate greatly and I haven't found a parkrun yet that I wouldn't do again. But I will pick out the 3 events which I have enjoyed the most. Top of the pile has to be Pollok as that is where it all began. Then Eglinton as the route is just phenomenal. Then Falkirk for "That hill".
Today was great. My whole family came down to support and I ran round with my brother.
Thanks to everyone who has volunteered at a parkrun and the directors who make it happen.
250 is the next landmark so will probably not be writing another one of these posts for at least 5 years :-)
Friday 6 January 2017
2017 plans
Based on last years plans and how it didn't really go according to plan. It was quite tempting to "wing it" again this year. But then I thought, even though things didn't go to plan and I ended up doing other stuff. The plans I made still got me out the door, maybe not to the extent I needed to, but they still got me out the door. So I am going to set goals and races for this year and just see what happens.
For the first 5 months of the year I want to focus on my endurance. Build up the long runs and hopefully do some longer distance races starting with Alloa half marathon in March. Then if things go well I will look at going longer and longer in April and May. Now I know I can't do parkruns full out, then do long runs the next day, so there will need to be a compromise. So the plan is to take parkruns easier which I have started doing in December anyway (although sometimes it wasn't intentional lol). Also, I'll take more of a turn volunteering than 2016.
June should be named National race month as there just seems to be an unbelievable amount of races. It will be a toss up what I end up doing this month. But in July I'll definitely be back at Crieff 10k. Then in October I fancy Great Scottish Run and then the finale for the year being the Southside six. A much hyped 16 mile race around 6 of Glasgow's southside parks which are right on my doorstep. That's if I get in though as it sells out very fast!
On to goals. Last year I set the target of 500 miles and didn't quite achieve it. But this year I've decided to up it to 600 and I really want to totally obliterate it. The next goal which will be in the summer, is a sub 25 minute Pollok parkrun. This will be more tricky as I won't be doing 5k efforts every week like the last few years but hopefully my speed and endurance will improve with some good blocks of training. For the half marathons I have a record of never being over 2 hours out of 11 attempts but I have a funny feeling that however well my Alloa training goes. Realistically I could very well be over the 2 hour mark. But later on in the year Sub 2 hours is my target.
For challenges I may end up doing the 10,000 step a day challenge for 100 days again and the Marcothon I want to do as it really does keep you running through a month where its probably the most hard month otherwise.
For the first 5 months of the year I want to focus on my endurance. Build up the long runs and hopefully do some longer distance races starting with Alloa half marathon in March. Then if things go well I will look at going longer and longer in April and May. Now I know I can't do parkruns full out, then do long runs the next day, so there will need to be a compromise. So the plan is to take parkruns easier which I have started doing in December anyway (although sometimes it wasn't intentional lol). Also, I'll take more of a turn volunteering than 2016.
June should be named National race month as there just seems to be an unbelievable amount of races. It will be a toss up what I end up doing this month. But in July I'll definitely be back at Crieff 10k. Then in October I fancy Great Scottish Run and then the finale for the year being the Southside six. A much hyped 16 mile race around 6 of Glasgow's southside parks which are right on my doorstep. That's if I get in though as it sells out very fast!
On to goals. Last year I set the target of 500 miles and didn't quite achieve it. But this year I've decided to up it to 600 and I really want to totally obliterate it. The next goal which will be in the summer, is a sub 25 minute Pollok parkrun. This will be more tricky as I won't be doing 5k efforts every week like the last few years but hopefully my speed and endurance will improve with some good blocks of training. For the half marathons I have a record of never being over 2 hours out of 11 attempts but I have a funny feeling that however well my Alloa training goes. Realistically I could very well be over the 2 hour mark. But later on in the year Sub 2 hours is my target.
For challenges I may end up doing the 10,000 step a day challenge for 100 days again and the Marcothon I want to do as it really does keep you running through a month where its probably the most hard month otherwise.
Sunday 1 January 2017
Marcothon week 4 and a bit and done :-)
Day 22: 50 meters into this run it started hailing very hard. It was difficult to run in as I didn't really want to look up as my face got sore. This lasted the whole of the first mile. Luckily after that the other 2 miles was just heavy rain which I can cope with fine. This is really the kind of challenging weather I expected when taking on the challenge in the first place so I'm glad the weather gods obliged. lol.
Day 23: I thought it was game over today and not because of storm Barbara. I had stomach issues most of the day but after dinner I actually felt better so went out for a slow jog on a different route which just came in under 3 miles. But because it was slow it was over the 25 minute mark. I think I was lucky with Barbara too as although it was windy, I think I missed the worst of it.
Day 24: Storm Barbara continues. Parkrun was on today as usual but decided to take my turn volunteering down at Pollok which was long overdue. I did my 5k route clockwise when I got home. I have to say I am really enjoying going the other way to usual. The first half was into the wind and the second half had the wind behind me. Nice and progressive too.
Day 25: Parkrun today and I headed to Pollok. I met up with Gregor and we ran round together. On paper it would look like a training run just taking it easy but my legs were quite tired going into it so on the second lap especially I was working quite a bit especially up the hills. Even with a time of just over 30 minutes I was surprised by how many people I was lapped by but obviously Christmas brings out all the big guns!
Day 26: Did mile laps today adding up to the 3 miles. Each lap was quicker than the last and really upped it especially on the last mile.
Day 27: Another good 3 mile day. My runs all seem to be progressive these days and its not even planned. I just seem to naturally do it. Can't complain.
Day 28: Felt good today so aimed for 10k which is really what I wanted to achieve this month. The run went better than I could have hoped for and got round in just over the hour mark. Even better thing was I could have gone on.
Day 29: Legs were not surprisingly feeling it a bit after yesterday but once I got going I actually felt pretty good. But at the same time I made sure I went at a very easy pace.
Day 30: Same route as yesterday at same pace. This time though had a sore spot on my right ankle. Hopefully some ice should do the trick.
Day 31: Great thing this year that the Marcothon finishes on a Saturday. Which could only mean one thing - PARKRUN. It was off to Pollok again. I wanted to give it my best shot today even with clearly tired legs. I was proud of the way I paced it and couldn't have really asked for better. Ended up finishing in 28.05 so a solid parkrun to finish not only the Marcothon but the year.
Looking forward to 2017 already
Happy new year!
Day 23: I thought it was game over today and not because of storm Barbara. I had stomach issues most of the day but after dinner I actually felt better so went out for a slow jog on a different route which just came in under 3 miles. But because it was slow it was over the 25 minute mark. I think I was lucky with Barbara too as although it was windy, I think I missed the worst of it.
Day 24: Storm Barbara continues. Parkrun was on today as usual but decided to take my turn volunteering down at Pollok which was long overdue. I did my 5k route clockwise when I got home. I have to say I am really enjoying going the other way to usual. The first half was into the wind and the second half had the wind behind me. Nice and progressive too.
Day 25: Parkrun today and I headed to Pollok. I met up with Gregor and we ran round together. On paper it would look like a training run just taking it easy but my legs were quite tired going into it so on the second lap especially I was working quite a bit especially up the hills. Even with a time of just over 30 minutes I was surprised by how many people I was lapped by but obviously Christmas brings out all the big guns!
Day 26: Did mile laps today adding up to the 3 miles. Each lap was quicker than the last and really upped it especially on the last mile.
Day 27: Another good 3 mile day. My runs all seem to be progressive these days and its not even planned. I just seem to naturally do it. Can't complain.
Day 28: Felt good today so aimed for 10k which is really what I wanted to achieve this month. The run went better than I could have hoped for and got round in just over the hour mark. Even better thing was I could have gone on.
Day 29: Legs were not surprisingly feeling it a bit after yesterday but once I got going I actually felt pretty good. But at the same time I made sure I went at a very easy pace.
Day 30: Same route as yesterday at same pace. This time though had a sore spot on my right ankle. Hopefully some ice should do the trick.
Day 31: Great thing this year that the Marcothon finishes on a Saturday. Which could only mean one thing - PARKRUN. It was off to Pollok again. I wanted to give it my best shot today even with clearly tired legs. I was proud of the way I paced it and couldn't have really asked for better. Ended up finishing in 28.05 so a solid parkrun to finish not only the Marcothon but the year.
Looking forward to 2017 already
Happy new year!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)